{"id":14992,"date":"2025-10-29T20:01:39","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T20:01:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/john-thune-says-he-plans-to-meet-with-democrats-about-ending-shutdown\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T20:01:39","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T20:01:39","slug":"john-thune-says-he-plans-to-meet-with-democrats-about-ending-shutdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/john-thune-says-he-plans-to-meet-with-democrats-about-ending-shutdown\/","title":{"rendered":"John Thune says he plans to meet with Democrats about ending shutdown"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Wednesday he expects to meet soon with a group of rank-and-file House Democrats about ending the 29-day-and-counting government shutdown.<\/p>\n<p>If the meeting happens, it would be a rare bipartisan gathering involving a top party leader. So far this month, Thune and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer have not met to discuss an exit path to the shutdown, leaving it to a small group of dealmaking members who have engaged in informal, on-and-off talks. <\/p>\n<p>Those conversations have heated up in recent days, members of both parties say, as major ramifications bear down including the possible lapse of federal food aid for 42 million Americans.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019re looking for an off-ramp,&#8221; Thune told reporters.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat I told them all along is, as soon as they&#8217;re ready to open up the government, that we will ensure that they have a process whereby they can have the chance to get their legislation voted on, their policies voted on,\u201d he added. \u201cI think they\u2019ve become more interested, and I hope that&#8217;s continues.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Thune made his comments after participating in an angry floor exchange with Democratic Sen. Ben Ray Luj\u00e1n of New Mexico, who sought to pass a patch for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program by unanimous consent. <\/p>\n<p>The normally mild-mannered South Dakota Republican boiled over at points as he lambasted Democrats over what he called a \u201ccynical\u201d ploy to extend food assistance without fully reopening the government.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou all have just figured out 29 days in that there might be some consequences,&#8221; he yelled.<\/p>\n<p>Thune tried to offer the House-passed continuing resolution instead, but Luj\u00e1n objected, and Thune ultimately blocked the legislation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSorry I channeled a little bit of anger there,\u201d Thune told reporters leaving the floor, saying that allowing the SNAP patch to pass would extend the shutdown \u201canother two or three weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Wednesday he expects to meet soon with a group of rank-and-file House Democrats about ending the 29-day-and-counting government shutdown. If the meeting happens, it would be a rare bipartisan gathering involving a top party leader. So far this month, Thune and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer have not met [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14992\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}